John William Baier's
_Compendium of Positive Theology_
Edited by C. F. W. Walther
Published by:
St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1877
[Translator's Preface. These are the major loci or topics of
John William Baier's _Compendium of Positive Theology_ as ed-
ited by Dr. C. F. W. Walther. These should be seen as the
broad outline of Baier-Walther's dogmatics, but please don't
assume that this is all. Each locus usually includes copious
explanatory notes and citations from patristics and other
Lutheran dogmaticians.]
Part One, Chapter Seven
On death or eternal damnation.
1. Damnation is opposed to blessedness partly privately, in so far
as it leads to the lack of all good, which is included in the
happiness of the blessedness, partly contrarily in so far as it is
not said to be a bare absence of blessedness, but it contains
positive troubles and tortures and the most sharp sense of the bad.
2. Especially the damned will be without; on the part of the
intellect, the beatific vision of God, nor will they be given the
light of glory, by being joined with the divine blessedness.
3. And thus it is also easily apparent that the love of God, as
clearly the knowledge of the highest good, and the joy resulting
from that knowledge, will be absent from the damned.
4. Also the gifts to the bodies of the blessed, through which they
are glorified, in this same way, they will be denied to the damned.
5. Among the positive penalties first happens that knowledge of the
intellect, through which the damned abstractively are removed from
God also from punishment, partly as God is of the highest majesty,
but they are removed from him because of a most grievous offense,
partly as a just judgement, but this itself is a most bitter
punishment of their sins, partly that they know God as a most kind
father, though not to themselves but to others who believe and are
made blessed.
6. Similarly they themselves thus will be contemplated, as the
multitude and gravity of their sins, also of the penalty of those
sins, by which they are weakened, in the spirit they will recount
the merits, bitterness and duration of those sins.
7. Other humans, who are blessed, they will see, as partners of his
happiness, by which they were destined to him, and having no part
in the calamities, by which they themselves are pressed.
8. And thus on the part of the will hatred of God arises, certainly
hostile and implacable to him; the hatred of him, then, inasmuch as
he was the cause to them of their misery; jealousy, resulting from
the sight of that alien blessedness; sorrow and sadness and anxiety
on account of the vast heap of the present evils and impatience and
perpetual despair.
9. However by this same thing the will of the damned, clearly
averted from God, will have been bound to evil, that, whatever they
do, it displeases God, and by their own thoughts, words and deeds,
unceasingly they sin.
10. The bodies of the damned will be tortured by infernal and
inextinguishable fire truly and properly speaking.
11. But also it is not improbable that the organs of sense and
sense itself will themselves come to torture by a peculiar
punishment. And indeed about touch, it is not possible to be
doubtful about the present opinion about punishment by fire
properly speaking.
12. That there will be grades of infernal punishments is not
possible to deny. However, it is not equally easy to define those
differences because of the diversity of subjects.
13. The efficient cause of evil things, which the complex of
damnation implies, is possible to be drawn neither in one, nor in
the same way. For in so far as damnation implies the privation of
the beatific vision and the love and joy born from that vision, the
efficient cause of that privation properly speaking is not given.
However of the positive acts of the intellect and will pertaining
to this place the cause is the soul itself forsaken by God. About
the evil bodies the cause of punishment is partly infernal fire,
partly evil angels. However in so far as damnation is seen through
the mode of punishment, it is possible to refer to the triune God
and to Christ the God-man as a cause of punishment.
14. The impulsive internal cause of the punishments of the damned
on the part of God is the punishing justice of God.
15. The impulsive external cause are the sins of the damned not
atoned for, especially intentional sins, and greatest of all final
unbelief.
16. The subject Which of damnation are impious humans, finally
unbelieving.
17. The subject by Which of damnation is equally the soul and body
of those impious humans.
18. To be willing so seek or to define in this life the place of
hell is uselessly inquisitive; however that there is a certain
place destined for the damned, is not doubtful.
19. That the penalty of all the damned will be eternal, perpetually
present, is most certain.
20. The goal of those damned on the part of God the judge is the
glory of the avenging justice, truth, and divine power.
21. The state of the damned is able to be described as a complex of
many evils, which the triune God by the power of his avenging
justice sends to impious humans and to the finally unbelieving, and
on the part of soul and body, on account of sins and their unbelief
it strikes them into hell, an eternal destroying, to the glory of
the divine justice, truth, and power.
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This text was translated by Rev. Theodore Mayes and is copyrighted
material, (c)1996, but is free for non-commercial use or distribu-
tion, and especially for use on Project Wittenberg. Please direct
any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther
Library at Concordia Theological Seminary.
E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu
Surface Mail: 66000 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA
Phone: (260) 452-2123 Fax: (260) 452-2126
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file: /pub/resources/text/wittenberg/baier: cpt-1-07.txt
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